The club’s present badge, as you can see, is displayed in the roundel. I say present as clubs seem to be changing badges and logos as quickly as the weather these days. (PIC 1) Dressed in the club’s colours of blue and white, the club’s name circles the club’s initials, and at the base is the year formed.
The badge it replaced looks more like a football crest. (PIC 2) It is beautiful in form and design. If it were a woman it would be Bridget Jones. There is only one reason why you would change such a great looking badge for one that at the time was almost identical to that of Glasgow rangers. Pink Floyd sang about it, as did The Beatles, Abba, and Dire Straits to mention but a few. This badge has a shield design, and within it is the club’s home strip of blue and white hoops, with the club’s name arranged in the white hoops. A football representing our beautiful game sits on top of the shield, and what is described in heraldry as a wreath emanates from the sides of the Football. The football has been invested with a Queen’s crown echoing the name, and below the shield is a scroll displaying the fact QPR play at Loftus Road.
An interesting trivia question to impress your mates with is: Which Football League club has had the most homes in its history? Answer: QPR. As the badge suggests QPR were formed in 1882, by the old boys of Droop Street School. As they were members of St Jude’s Institute, that is where they met and also named the team St Jude’s. In 1886 St Jude’s merged with a team called Christchurch Rangers, and as most of the team came from the district of Queen’s Park they renamed the club Queens Park Rangers. The area known as Queen’s Park in the London borough of Brent, grew from around a park which opened in 1887 and was named to honour Queen Victoria. Before the club settled at Loftus Road, as I mentioned, they had a number of other homes, but how many times did they move? Well, when known as St Jude’s they played on some waste ground in Kensal Rise, before moving to their first real ground called Wellford’s Fields that was close to Kensal Rise tube station, and they also changed their name to QPR. 1888 saw a move to the London Scottish Ground, but a poor pitch meant a move to Home Farm in Kensal Green. I don’t how bad the pitch must have been to change it for a farm, but before the 1890 season ended they were on the move again playing on Kensal Rise Green. Less than a year later, and they were off again, and this time home was to be the Gun Club in Wormwood Scrubs, where they stayed for a year or so before getting itchy feet again, and in 1892 they found themselves at the Kilburn County Cricket Ground. They must have started putting up curtains and redecorating the place thinking this was to be home as it was four years before they found themselves back at Kensal Rise for the start of the 1896 season, taking the curtains and all the furnishings with them and signing a ten-year lease at the Kensal Rise Athletic Ground. Unfortunately, the landlord was not a footy fan and he ended the lease early, and the turn of the century saw the club on the street. Eventually a ground was found in St Quentin’s Avenue, but they had to change in a local pub and run up the street to the ground. This upset the locals who successfully petitioned to have them thrown out and walking the streets they once ran up. The 1902/03 season saw the homeless club return to Kensal Rise on a two-year lease. During this time QPR enjoyed a little success, which the landlord duly noted and stuck up the rent 100%, and not being able to afford the massive hike the overused suitcases were packed again in readiness for yet another move. The Agricultural showground in Park Royal became the next home, until the Royal Agricultural Society’s funds withered and they had to sell the ground. On the way to the doss house for a little rest from all the coming and going, just up the road from Park Royal, they found that the new Park Royal Stadium had just been built. A nice little stadium with a 6,000 capacity was just what they were looking for, and here they stayed for not just one season, not two, but for seven seasons until that is that the war meant the army taking over the ground and QPR packing up their troubles in their old kit bag. That good old ground in Kensal Rise took them back in again, but that ground too was soon needed for the war effort, and was turned into allotments. Move 13, saw a lucky change of address for the club as an amateur club called Shepherds Bush FC had disbanded, and a little place called Loftus Road became available. No more than a field when they moved in, they soon set about doing it up with equipment from the old Park Royal Stadium and made the place home sweet home, where they would live happily ever after. Until that is! Eleven years later, and attendances were beginning to grow and when a bigger stadium near White City at the other end of South Africa Road became available the club decided to take it. In 1931 QPR moved in, but the crowds did not, and without the expected crowds they had to go back to Loftus Road. Another attempt to draw the growing number of fans to White City failed in 1963, and so after 16 moves, QPR decided that their spiritual home was indeed Loftus Road and perhaps that is where they should stay, and there they remain to this very day. That, my friends, is how the name of Loftus Road has ended up on the club’s badge. If for no other reason than to remind them which end of South Africa Road to go on Saturday afternoon.
Some clubs have changed their badge as much as QPR their grounds, but I have only been able to find three other QPR badges. The most recent lasting 26 years, from 1982 until 2008, and is identical to the present badge apart from a blue centre and the scroll displaying the name of Loftus Road. (PIC 3) For ten years during the 1970s the club sported another hoop design on their shirts. (PIC 4) It has a shield with the famous hoops, and the club’s initials in front of an old panelled football, with the club’s name in a scroll at the base. The first badge I could find was also worn for over 20 years, from 1953 to 1972. (PIC 5) This badge as were most badges at the time, has been lifted from a coat of arms and this one is from the arms of Hammersmith and Fulham. (PIC 6) The arms were granted in December 1897. The emblems on the shield are from the arms of two benefactors to the borough. The cross-crosslets represent Edward Latymer, who, in 1626, left money in his will for the education of boys from poor backgrounds. The horseshoes represent Sir Nicholas Crisp, who contributed bricks and funds for the parish church. The scallop, denotes George Pring, who was responsible for devising the Hammersmith Bridge over the River Thames project, but died before it was finished in 1827. The hammers refer to the name Hammersmith. The motto in the scroll is “SPECTEMUR AGENDO” which translated into the Queen’s English is, Let Us Be Seen In Action. Thanks, go to Mr John Birkin, a retired Latin teacher for his accurate translation.
Today Loftus Road holds 18,439 supporters, all being seen in action when Saturday comes. Local rivals welcomed there are Fulham, Chelsea, and Brentford. The team play in blue hoops which gives the club its nickname of “The Superhoops”, which sounds a little like something you might find in a tin covered in a tomato sauce. For more on “The Superhoops” grab a tin opener and open up www.qpr.co.uk
